Beyond Apple & Vanilla: 5 Fresh Pie & Ice Cream Pairings

Let's say you want to really blow out all the stops on a dessert this weekend. You want to go just a little over the top before people head back to school, or you want to celebrate someone special. Well, what's more celebratory than pie — with ice cream! Yesterday we showed you 20 of our favorite ice cream recipes. Today, we give you five ice cream pairings with pie.

And let's move beyond apple pie and vanilla ice cream, shall we? I love the classics too, but let's branch out a bit. When it comes to pie and ice cream, there is so much room to play.

• 1 Brown Butter Ice Cream with Apple-Blackberry Pie with Ginger - Brown butter ice cream is like vanilla's big brother, all grown-up and sexy. Its rich flavor complements jammy, fruity pies and cobblers without drowning out their sweetness. This apple-blackberry pie is one of my favorites, this time of year.

• 2 The Best Chocolate Ice Cream with Old-Fashioned Pecan Pie - Chocolate ice cream with pecan pie? Are we crazy? Well, maybe. This combo is for lovers of chocolate pecan pie, and for those who like to cut their too-sweet pie with a touch of something dark and bitter. Make your ice cream extra dark and not too sweet. It's an intense pairing, for sure — can you handle it?

• 3 Ginger Ice Cream with Green Grape Pie - Here's an unusual pie: Green grape. It sounds strange, but it's juicy and bursting with flavor. It's also easier to throw together than other fruit pies (no pitting, peeling, or chopping required), and the bursting sweetness of juicy grapes pairs very well with this spicy ice cream made with fresh ginger.

• 4 Salted Almond Ice Cream with Cacchiano Cherry Pie - Almonds and cherries are a natural pair, and they blend beautifully in these two recipes: One a salty, sweet ice cream studded with roasted almonds, and the other a scarlet, old-fashioned cherry pie.

• 5 Creamy, Tangy Lemon Ice Cream with Rosemary Apple Turnovers with Honey - OK, these turnovers aren't really a classic pie. But I kind of see them as pie you can hold in your hand, and they make the sweetest pair with this tangy lemon ice cream. Neither recipe is too sweet, and the herbal flavors in the turnovers will play off the bright lemon flavor.

Faith is executive editor of The Kitchn and author of three cookbooks, including the James Beard Award-winning The Kitchn Cookbook, coauthored with Sara Kate Gillingham, as well as Bakeless Sweets. She lives in Columbus, Ohio with her husband Mike.